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Dean Radin, a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and author of The Conscious Universe and Entangled Minds, tells an interesting story about shopping for office and lab space around the time of the Dot Com Bust in 2001…

But is any kind of pro-active stance available that might catalyze the possibilities for resistance noted in our previous installment? After all, decades or centuries could pass before any substantive shift in perspective occurs regarding the UFO question. The authors suggest that such a course of action is possible…

“If the proper application of science demands that at present we be agnostic about whether any UFOs have an extraterrestrial origin, neither believing nor rejecting this, then the taboo on trying to find out what UFOs are is deeply puzzling. After all, if any UFOs were discovered to be from somewhere else in the universe, it would be one of the most important events in human history, making it rational to investigate even a remote possibility.”

The four principal arguments offered in support of the skeptical view of the ETH are described as follows: (1) “We Are Alone.” (2) “They Can’t Get Here.” (3) “They Would Land on the White House Lawn.” (4) “We Would Know If They Were Here.” Let’s take these one at a time…

There is a taboo…. the UFO taboo…. Not in popular culture, of course, where interest in UFOs abounds, but in elite culture – the structure of authoritative belief and practice that determines what “reality” officially is…

The worldwide rumour about Flying Saucers presents a problem that challenges the psychologist for a number of reasons. The primary question – and apparently this is the most important point – is this: are they real or are they mere fantasy products? This question is by no means settled yet. If they are real, exactly what are they? If they are fantasy, why should such a rumour exist? (Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies, 1958)—- C. G. Jung

WTW: Woven deep into the vast communication networks wrapping the globe, we also find evidence of embryonic technological autonomy. The technium contains 170 quadrillion computer chips wired up into one mega-scale computing platform. The total number of transistors in this global network is now approximately the same number as the neurons in your brain.

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WTW: At some point in its evolution, our system of tools and machines and ideas became so dense in feedback loops and complex interactions that it spawned a bit of independence. It began to exercise some autonomy. Edgar: Why have you disconnected my Ethernet cable, Alice?

The technium extends beyond shiny hardware to include culture, art, social institutions, and intellectual creations of all types. It includes intangibles like software, law, and philosophical concepts. And most important, it includes the generative impulses of our inventions to encourage more tool making, more technology invention, and more self-enhancing connections.

With a job, Director of New Projects, at Google, almost as cool as his name, Astro Teller can also lay claim to the publication of an intriguing work of fiction in the late 1990’s, “Exegesis.” It’s a work that takes an engaging and thought-provoking look at what human interaction with an emerging AI (Artificial Intelligence) might entail.

The germ of anti-intellectualism, barely detectable during the founding [of the United States] era, appears to have become a virulent force in our time.—- (Elvin T. Lim, “The Anti-Intellectual Presidency: The Decline of Presidential Rhetoric From George Washington to George W. Bush”)

You’re wondering why I’ve called you here. The reason is simple. To answer all your questions. I mean – all. This is the greatest news of our time. As of today, whatever you want to know, provided it’s in the datanet, you can know. In other words, there are no more secrets.—- (John Brunner, “The Shockwave Rider”)

“Never before in history has mankind been so much of two minds, so divided into two camps, as it is today. Religions have traditionally been allied with ideas of the supernatural, and often have been based upon explicit beliefs about it. Today there are many who hold that nothing worthy of being called religious is possible apart from the supernatural.”

If you are feeling depressed about the economy, the job outlook, and the discussion over possible remedies, you may need to shift your focus a bit and redirect your attention to a discussion about computers. Not necessarily about computers per se, and not just because you may be harboring some uncomfortable thoughts about how you may someday be replaced by one…

As we recall the recent centennial anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, that disaster became “a simultaneous drama played out on the North Atlantic as its wireless distress calls filled the skies.

Don Peck’s article, Can The Middle Class Be Saved, appearing in The Atlantic last fall, opens with a review of a disconcerting but, perhaps, not overly surprising report conducted by Citigroup a few years before the Recession of 2008: